Cloud Service Automation of Common Image Management

ABSTRACT

Aspects of the disclosure relate to cloud service automation of common image management. An image update orchestrator may receive a request to upgrade a virtual machine image. The image update orchestrator may spin up an instance of a virtual machine and provision the instance of the virtual machine with a virtual machine image and cause to install a plurality of software updates to the instance of the virtual machine. The image update orchestrator may take a snapshot of the instance of the virtual machine and generate a sealed master image. Finally, the image update orchestrator may cause to deploy, to one or more policy managed devices, the sealed master image.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of co-pending U.S. application Ser.No. 16/776,806, titled “Cloud Service Automation of Common ImageManagement,” filed Jan. 30, 2020, which is a continuation of U.S.application Ser. No. 15/825,506, titled “Cloud Service Automation ofCommon Image Management,” filed on Nov. 29, 2017, issued as U.S. Pat.No. 10,579,363, on Mar. 3, 2020, and which is incorporated by referencein its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Aspects of the disclosure relate to computer hardware and software. Inparticular, one or more aspects of the disclosure generally relate tocomputer hardware and software for virtual machine image management.

BACKGROUND

In a cloud-based computing environment, a virtual machine image may beused as a template to create instances of virtual machines. The virtualmachine image may contain a fixed state of one or more operatingsystems, as well as one or more software applications installed on theoperating systems, such as databases, application servers andinfrastructure applications, which each may be configured withappropriate default settings, so that the image can be used to quicklyset up new computing instances. As enterprises in the cloud expand theirservices, the volume, variety and velocity at which data arrivesincrease drastically. As a result, virtual machine images may needfrequent updating. Conventional systems might not be able to meet thechallenges on virtual machine image management with efficiency,performance, seamlessness and scalability.

SUMMARY

The following presents a simplified summary of various aspects describedherein. This summary is not an extensive overview, and is not intendedto identify key or critical elements or to delineate the scope of theclaims. The following summary merely presents some concepts in asimplified form as an introductory prelude to the more detaileddescription provided below.

To overcome limitations in the prior art described above, and toovercome other limitations that will be apparent upon reading andunderstanding the present specification, aspects described herein aredirected towards cloud service automation of common image management.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosure, an imageupdate orchestrator having at least one processor, memory, and acommunication interface may receive, from a client device, via anorchestrated update service provided by the computing platform, arequest to upgrade a virtual machine image. The image updateorchestrator may further receive a plurality of software upgrades to beapplied to the virtual machine image and configuration informationassociated with the virtual machine image. Subsequently, the imageupdate orchestrator may spin up an instance of a virtual machine,provision the instance of virtual machine with the virtual machine imagebased on the configuration information, and cause to install theplurality of software updates to the instance of virtual machine.Thereafter, the image update orchestrator may take a snapshot of theinstance of virtual machine based on the virtual machine image with thelist of installed software updates and generate a sealed master imagebased on the snapshot. Finally, the image update orchestrator may causeto deploy the sealed master image to the one or more policy manageddevices and deploying the sealed master image may enable the one or morepolicy managed devices to implement image upgrades using theorchestrated update service.

In some instances, the image update orchestrator may cause to deploy thesealed master image to the one or more policy managed devices in atesting environment, and one or more policy managed devices may beconfigured to generate validation information. For example, the imageupdate orchestrator may mark the sealed master image as a stable masterimage based on positive validation information and as a result, theimage update orchestrator may cause to deploy the stable master image tothe one or more policy managed devices in a production environment. Inanother example, the image update orchestrator may mark the sealedmaster image as an unstable master image based on negative validationinformation. As such, the image orchestrator may unseal the unstablemaster image, mark a most recent stable copy of the sealed master imageas a stable master image, and cause to roll back the unstable masterimage to the stable master image on the one or more policy manageddevices in the testing environment.

In some instances, the image update orchestrator may send to a commonimage database, records on a list of the sealed master image and theplurality of software upgrades deployed on the one or morepolicy-managed devices. In some instances, in response to generating thesealed master image, the image update orchestrator may terminate theinstance of virtual machine.

In some instances, the image update orchestrator may generate aplurality of master images associated with a plurality of ActiveDirectory domains and join the plurality of master images to generatethe sealed master image.

These and additional aspects will be appreciated with the benefit of thedisclosures discussed in further detail below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete understanding of aspects described herein and theadvantages thereof may be acquired by referring to the followingdescription in consideration of the accompanying drawings, in which likereference numbers indicate like features, and wherein:

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative computer system architecture that may beused in accordance with one or more illustrative aspects describedherein.

FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative remote-access system architecture thatmay be used in accordance with one or more illustrative aspectsdescribed herein.

FIG. 3 depicts an illustrative virtualized (hypervisor) systemarchitecture that may be used in accordance with one or moreillustrative aspects described herein.

FIG. 4 depicts an illustrative cloud-based system architecture that maybe used in accordance with one or more illustrative aspects describedherein.

FIG. 5 depicts an illustrative enterprise mobility management system.

FIG. 6 depicts another illustrative enterprise mobility managementsystem.

FIG. 7 depicts an illustrative computing environment for managing cloudservice automation of common image with one or more illustrative aspectsdescribed herein.

FIGS. 8A-8D depict an example event sequence for managing cloud serviceautomation of common image in accordance with one or more illustrativeaspects described herein.

FIG. 9 depicts an example method of managing cloud service automation ofcommon image in accordance with one or more illustrative aspectsdescribed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description of the various embodiments, reference ismade to the accompanying drawings identified above and which form a parthereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration various embodimentsin which aspects described herein may be practiced. It is to beunderstood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural andfunctional modifications may be made without departing from the scopedescribed herein. Various aspects are capable of other embodiments andof being practiced or being carried out in various different ways.

It is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology used hereinare for the purpose of description and should not be regarded aslimiting. Rather, the phrases and terms used herein are to be giventheir broadest interpretation and meaning. The use of “including” and“comprising” and variations thereof is meant to encompass the itemslisted thereafter and equivalents thereof as well as additional itemsand equivalents thereof. The use of the terms “mounted,” “connected,”“coupled,” “positioned,” “engaged” and similar terms, is meant toinclude both direct and indirect mounting, connecting, coupling,positioning and engaging.

Computing Architecture

Computer software, hardware, and networks may be utilized in a varietyof different system environments, including standalone, networked,remote-access (aka, remote desktop), virtualized, and/or cloud-basedenvironments, among others. FIG. 1 illustrates one example of a systemarchitecture and data processing device that may be used to implementone or more illustrative aspects described herein in a standalone and/ornetworked environment. Various network nodes 103, 105, 107, and 109 maybe interconnected via a wide area network (WAN) 101, such as theInternet. Other networks may also or alternatively be used, includingprivate intranets, corporate networks, local area networks (LAN),metropolitan area networks (MAN), wireless networks, personal networks(PAN), and the like. Network 101 is for illustration purposes and may bereplaced with fewer or additional computer networks. A local areanetwork 133 may have one or more of any known LAN topology and may useone or more of a variety of different protocols, such as Ethernet.Devices 103, 105, 107, and 109 and other devices (not shown) may beconnected to one or more of the networks via twisted pair wires, coaxialcable, fiber optics, radio waves, or other communication media.

The term “network” as used herein and depicted in the drawings refersnot only to systems in which remote storage devices are coupled togethervia one or more communication paths, but also to stand-alone devicesthat may be coupled, from time to time, to such systems that havestorage capability. Consequently, the term “network” includes not only a“physical network” but also a “content network,” which is comprised ofthe data—attributable to a single entity—which resides across allphysical networks.

The components may include data server 103, web server 105, and clientcomputers 107, 109. Data server 103 provides overall access, control andadministration of databases and control software for performing one ormore illustrative aspects describe herein. Data server 103 may beconnected to web server 105 through which users interact with and obtaindata as requested. Alternatively, data server 103 may act as a webserver itself and be directly connected to the Internet. Data server 103may be connected to web server 105 through the local area network 133,the wide area network 101 (e.g., the Internet), via direct or indirectconnection, or via some other network. Users may interact with the dataserver 103 using remote computers 107, 109, e.g., using a web browser toconnect to the data server 103 via one or more externally exposed websites hosted by web server 105. Client computers 107, 109 may be used inconcert with data server 103 to access data stored therein, or may beused for other purposes. For example, from client device 107 a user mayaccess web server 105 using an Internet browser, as is known in the art,or by executing a software application that communicates with web server105 and/or data server 103 over a computer network (such as theInternet).

Servers and applications may be combined on the same physical machines,and retain separate virtual or logical addresses, or may reside onseparate physical machines. FIG. 1 illustrates just one example of anetwork architecture that may be used, and those of skill in the artwill appreciate that the specific network architecture and dataprocessing devices used may vary, and are secondary to the functionalitythat they provide, as further described herein. For example, servicesprovided by web server 105 and data server 103 may be combined on asingle server.

Each component 103, 105, 107, 109 may be any type of known computer,server, or data processing device. Data server 103, e.g., may include aprocessor 111 controlling overall operation of the data server 103. Dataserver 103 may further include random access memory (RAM) 113, read onlymemory (ROM) 115, network interface 117, input/output interfaces 119(e.g., keyboard, mouse, display, printer, etc.), and memory 121.Input/output (I/O) 119 may include a variety of interface units anddrives for reading, writing, displaying, and/or printing data or files.Memory 121 may further store operating system software 123 forcontrolling overall operation of the data processing device 103, controllogic 125 for instructing data server 103 to perform aspects describedherein, and other application software 127 providing secondary, support,and/or other functionality which may or might not be used in conjunctionwith aspects described herein. The control logic may also be referred toherein as the data server software 125. Functionality of the data serversoftware may refer to operations or decisions made automatically basedon rules coded into the control logic, made manually by a user providinginput into the system, and/or a combination of automatic processingbased on user input (e.g., queries, data updates, etc.).

Memory 121 may also store data used in performance of one or moreaspects described herein, including a first database 129 and a seconddatabase 131. In some embodiments, the first database may include thesecond database (e.g., as a separate table, report, etc.). That is, theinformation can be stored in a single database, or separated intodifferent logical, virtual, or physical databases, depending on systemdesign. Devices 105, 107, and 109 may have similar or differentarchitecture as described with respect to device 103. Those of skill inthe art will appreciate that the functionality of data processing device103 (or device 105, 107, or 109) as described herein may be spreadacross multiple data processing devices, for example, to distributeprocessing load across multiple computers, to segregate transactionsbased on geographic location, user access level, quality of service(QoS), etc.

One or more aspects may be embodied in computer-usable or readable dataand/or computer-executable instructions, such as in one or more programmodules, executed by one or more computers or other devices as describedherein. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects,components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks orimplement particular abstract data types when executed by a processor ina computer or other device. The modules may be written in a source codeprogramming language that is subsequently compiled for execution, or maybe written in a scripting language such as (but not limited to)HyperText Markup Language (HTML) or Extensible Markup Language (XML).The computer executable instructions may be stored on a computerreadable medium such as a nonvolatile storage device. Any suitablecomputer readable storage media may be utilized, including hard disks,CD-ROMs, optical storage devices, magnetic storage devices, and/or anycombination thereof. In addition, various transmission (non-storage)media representing data or events as described herein may be transferredbetween a source and a destination in the form of electromagnetic wavestraveling through signal-conducting media such as metal wires, opticalfibers, and/or wireless transmission media (e.g., air and/or space).Various aspects described herein may be embodied as a method, a dataprocessing system, or a computer program product. Therefore, variousfunctionalities may be embodied in whole or in part in software,firmware, and/or hardware or hardware equivalents such as integratedcircuits, field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), and the like.Particular data structures may be used to more effectively implement oneor more aspects described herein, and such data structures arecontemplated within the scope of computer executable instructions andcomputer-usable data described herein.

With further reference to FIG. 2, one or more aspects described hereinmay be implemented in a remote-access environment. FIG. 2 depicts anexample system architecture including a computing device 201 in anillustrative computing environment 200 that may be used according to oneor more illustrative aspects described herein. Computing device 201 maybe used as a server 206 a in a single-server or multi-server desktopvirtualization system (e.g., a remote access or cloud system) configuredto provide virtual machines for client access devices. The computingdevice 201 may have a processor 203 for controlling overall operation ofthe server and its associated components, including RAM 205, ROM 207,Input/Output (I/O) module 209, and memory 215.

I/O module 209 may include a mouse, keypad, touch screen, scanner,optical reader, and/or stylus (or other input device(s)) through which auser of computing device 201 may provide input, and may also include oneor more of a speaker for providing audio output and one or more of avideo display device for providing textual, audiovisual, and/orgraphical output. Software may be stored within memory 215 and/or otherstorage to provide instructions to processor 203 for configuringcomputing device 201 into a special purpose computing device in order toperform various functions as described herein. For example, memory 215may store software used by the computing device 201, such as anoperating system 217, application programs 219, and an associateddatabase 221.

Computing device 201 may operate in a networked environment supportingconnections to one or more remote computers, such as terminals 240 (alsoreferred to as client devices). The terminals 240 may be personalcomputers, mobile devices, laptop computers, tablets, or servers thatinclude many or all of the elements described above with respect to thecomputing device 103 or 201. The network connections depicted in FIG. 2include a local area network (LAN) 225 and a wide area network (WAN)229, but may also include other networks. When used in a LAN networkingenvironment, computing device 201 may be connected to the LAN 225through a network interface or adapter 223. When used in a WANnetworking environment, computing device 201 may include a modem 227 orother wide area network interface for establishing communications overthe WAN 229, such as computer network 230 (e.g., the Internet). It willbe appreciated that the network connections shown are illustrative andother means of establishing a communications link between the computersmay be used. Computing device 201 and/or terminals 240 may also bemobile terminals (e.g., mobile phones, smartphones, personal digitalassistants (PDAs), notebooks, etc.) including various other components,such as a battery, speaker, and antennas (not shown).

Aspects described herein may also be operational with numerous othergeneral purpose or special purpose computing system environments orconfigurations. Examples of other computing systems, environments,and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with aspectsdescribed herein include, but are not limited to, personal computers,server computers, hand-held or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems,microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmable consumerelectronics, network personal computers (PCs), minicomputers, mainframecomputers, distributed computing environments that include any of theabove systems or devices, and the like.

As shown in FIG. 2, one or more client devices 240 may be incommunication with one or more servers 206 a-206 n (generally referredto herein as “server(s) 206”). In one embodiment, the computingenvironment 200 may include a network appliance installed between theserver(s) 206 and client machine(s) 240. The network appliance maymanage client/server connections, and in some cases can load balanceclient connections amongst a plurality of backend servers 206.

The client machine(s) 240 may in some embodiments be referred to as asingle client machine 240 or a single group of client machines 240,while server(s) 206 may be referred to as a single server 206 or asingle group of servers 206. In one embodiment a single client machine240 communicates with more than one server 206, while in anotherembodiment a single server 206 communicates with more than one clientmachine 240. In yet another embodiment, a single client machine 240communicates with a single server 206.

A client machine 240 can, in some embodiments, be referenced by any oneof the following non-exhaustive terms: client machine(s); client(s);client computer(s); client device(s); client computing device(s); localmachine; remote machine; client node(s); endpoint(s); or endpointnode(s). The server 206, in some embodiments, may be referenced by anyone of the following non-exhaustive terms: server(s), local machine;remote machine; server farm(s), or host computing device(s).

In one embodiment, the client machine 240 may be a virtual machine. Thevirtual machine may be any virtual machine, while in some embodimentsthe virtual machine may be any virtual machine managed by a Type 1 orType 2 hypervisor, for example, a hypervisor developed by CitrixSystems, IBM, VMware, or any other hypervisor. In some aspects, thevirtual machine may be managed by a hypervisor, while in other aspectsthe virtual machine may be managed by a hypervisor executing on a server206 or a hypervisor executing on a client 240.

Some embodiments include a client device 240 that displays applicationoutput generated by an application remotely executing on a server 206 orother remotely located machine. In these embodiments, the client device240 may execute a virtual machine receiver program or application todisplay the output in an application window, a browser, or other outputwindow. In one example, the application is a desktop, while in otherexamples the application is an application that generates or presents adesktop. A desktop may include a graphical shell providing a userinterface for an instance of an operating system in which local and/orremote applications can be integrated. Applications, as used herein, areprograms that execute after an instance of an operating system (and,optionally, also the desktop) has been loaded.

The server 206, in some embodiments, uses a remote presentation protocolor other program to send data to a thin-client or remote-displayapplication executing on the client to present display output generatedby an application executing on the server 206. The thin-client orremote-display protocol can be any one of the following non-exhaustivelist of protocols: the Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) protocoldeveloped by Citrix Systems, Inc. of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; or the RemoteDesktop Protocol (RDP) manufactured by the Microsoft Corporation ofRedmond, Wash.

A remote computing environment may include more than one server 206a-206 n such that the servers 206 a-206 n are logically grouped togetherinto a server farm 206, for example, in a cloud computing environment.The server farm 206 may include servers 206 that are geographicallydispersed while and logically grouped together, or servers 206 that arelocated proximate to each other while logically grouped together.Geographically dispersed servers 206 a-206 n within a server farm 206can, in some embodiments, communicate using a WAN (wide), MAN(metropolitan), or LAN (local), where different geographic regions canbe characterized as: different continents; different regions of acontinent; different countries; different states; different cities;different campuses; different rooms; or any combination of the precedinggeographical locations. In some embodiments the server farm 206 may beadministered as a single entity, while in other embodiments the serverfarm 206 can include multiple server farms.

In some embodiments, a server farm may include servers 206 that executea substantially similar type of operating system platform (e.g.,WINDOWS, UNIX, LINUX, iOS, ANDROID, SYMBIAN, etc.) In other embodiments,server farm 206 may include a first group of one or more servers thatexecute a first type of operating system platform, and a second group ofone or more servers that execute a second type of operating systemplatform.

Server 206 may be configured as any type of server, as needed, e.g., afile server, an application server, a web server, a proxy server, anappliance, a network appliance, a gateway, an application gateway, agateway server, a virtualization server, a deployment server, a SecureSockets Layer (SSL) VPN server, a firewall, a web server, an applicationserver or as a master application server, a server executing an activedirectory, or a server executing an application acceleration programthat provides firewall functionality, application functionality, or loadbalancing functionality. Other server types may also be used.

Some embodiments include a first server 206 a that receives requestsfrom a client machine 240, forwards the request to a second server 206 b(not shown), and responds to the request generated by the client machine240 with a response from the second server 206 b (not shown.) Firstserver 206 a may acquire an enumeration of applications available to theclient machine 240 and well as address information associated with anapplication server 206 hosting an application identified within theenumeration of applications. First server 206 a can then present aresponse to the client's request using a web interface, and communicatedirectly with the client 240 to provide the client 240 with access to anidentified application. One or more clients 240 and/or one or moreservers 206 may transmit data over network 230, e.g., network 101.

FIG. 3 shows a high-level architecture of an illustrative desktopvirtualization system. As shown, the desktop virtualization system maybe single-server or multi-server system, or cloud system, including atleast one virtualization server 301 configured to provide virtualdesktops and/or virtual applications to one or more client accessdevices 240. As used herein, a desktop refers to a graphical environmentor space in which one or more applications may be hosted and/orexecuted. A desktop may include a graphical shell providing a userinterface for an instance of an operating system in which local and/orremote applications can be integrated. Applications may include programsthat execute after an instance of an operating system (and, optionally,also the desktop) has been loaded. Each instance of the operating systemmay be physical (e.g., one operating system per device) or virtual(e.g., many instances of an OS running on a single device). Eachapplication may be executed on a local device, or executed on a remotelylocated device (e.g., remoted).

A computer device 301 may be configured as a virtualization server in avirtualization environment, for example, a single-server, multi-server,or cloud computing environment. Virtualization server 301 illustrated inFIG. 3 can be deployed as and/or implemented by one or more embodimentsof the server 206 illustrated in FIG. 2 or by other known computingdevices. Included in virtualization server 301 is a hardware layer thatcan include one or more physical disks 304, one or more physical devices306, one or more physical processors 308, and one or more physicalmemories 316. In some embodiments, firmware 312 can be stored within amemory element in the physical memory 316 and can be executed by one ormore of the physical processors 308. Virtualization server 301 mayfurther include an operating system 314 that may be stored in a memoryelement in the physical memory 316 and executed by one or more of thephysical processors 308. Still further, a hypervisor 302 may be storedin a memory element in the physical memory 316 and can be executed byone or more of the physical processors 308.

Executing on one or more of the physical processors 308 may be one ormore virtual machines 332A-C (generally 332). Each virtual machine 332may have a virtual disk 326A-C and a virtual processor 328A-C. In someembodiments, a first virtual machine 332A may execute, using a virtualprocessor 328A, a control program 320 that includes a tools stack 324.Control program 320 may be referred to as a control virtual machine,Dom0, Domain 0, or other virtual machine used for system administrationand/or control. In some embodiments, one or more virtual machines 332B-Ccan execute, using a virtual processor 328B-C, a guest operating system330A-B.

Virtualization server 301 may include a hardware layer 310 with one ormore pieces of hardware that communicate with the virtualization server301. In some embodiments, the hardware layer 310 can include one or morephysical disks 304, one or more physical devices 306, one or morephysical processors 308, and one or more physical memory 316. Physicalcomponents 304, 306, 308, and 316 may include, for example, any of thecomponents described above. Physical devices 306 may include, forexample, a network interface card, a video card, a keyboard, a mouse, aninput device, a monitor, a display device, speakers, an optical drive, astorage device, a universal serial bus connection, a printer, a scanner,a network element (e.g., router, firewall, network address translator,load balancer, virtual private network (VPN) gateway, Dynamic HostConfiguration Protocol (DHCP) router, etc.), or any device connected toor communicating with virtualization server 301. Physical memory 316 inthe hardware layer 310 may include any type of memory. Physical memory316 may store data, and in some embodiments may store one or moreprograms, or set of executable instructions. FIG. 3 illustrates anembodiment where firmware 312 is stored within the physical memory 316of virtualization server 301. Programs or executable instructions storedin the physical memory 316 can be executed by the one or more processors308 of virtualization server 301.

Virtualization server 301 may also include a hypervisor 302. In someembodiments, hypervisor 302 may be a program executed by processors 308on virtualization server 301 to create and manage any number of virtualmachines 332. Hypervisor 302 may be referred to as a virtual machinemonitor, or platform virtualization software. In some embodiments,hypervisor 302 can be any combination of executable instructions andhardware that monitors virtual machines executing on a computingmachine. Hypervisor 302 may be Type 2 hypervisor, where the hypervisorexecutes within an operating system 314 executing on the virtualizationserver 301. Virtual machines may then execute at a level above thehypervisor. In some embodiments, the Type 2 hypervisor may executewithin the context of a user's operating system such that the Type 2hypervisor interacts with the user's operating system. In otherembodiments, one or more virtualization servers 301 in a virtualizationenvironment may instead include a Type 1 hypervisor (not shown). A Type1 hypervisor may execute on the virtualization server 301 by directlyaccessing the hardware and resources within the hardware layer 310. Thatis, while a Type 2 hypervisor 302 accesses system resources through ahost operating system 314, as shown, a Type 1 hypervisor may directlyaccess all system resources without the host operating system 314. AType 1 hypervisor may execute directly on one or more physicalprocessors 308 of virtualization server 301, and may include programdata stored in the physical memory 316.

Hypervisor 302, in some embodiments, can provide virtual resources tooperating systems 330 or control programs 320 executing on virtualmachines 332 in any manner that simulates the operating systems 330 orcontrol programs 320 having direct access to system resources. Systemresources can include, but are not limited to, physical devices 306,physical disks 304, physical processors 308, physical memory 316, andany other component included in virtualization server 301 hardware layer310. Hypervisor 302 may be used to emulate virtual hardware, partitionphysical hardware, virtualize physical hardware, and/or execute virtualmachines that provide access to computing environments. In still otherembodiments, hypervisor 302 may control processor scheduling and memorypartitioning for a virtual machine 332 executing on virtualizationserver 301. Hypervisor 302 may include those manufactured by VMWare,Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif.; the XENPROJECT hypervisor, an open sourceproduct whose development is overseen by the open source XenProject.orgcommunity; HyperV, VirtualServer or virtual PC hypervisors provided byMicrosoft, or others. In some embodiments, virtualization server 301 mayexecute a hypervisor 302 that creates a virtual machine platform onwhich guest operating systems may execute. In these embodiments, thevirtualization server 301 may be referred to as a host server. Anexample of such a virtualization server is the XENSERVER provided byCitrix Systems, Inc., of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Hypervisor 302 may create one or more virtual machines 332B-C (generally332) in which guest operating systems 330 execute. In some embodiments,hypervisor 302 may load a virtual machine image to create a virtualmachine 332. In other embodiments, the hypervisor 302 may execute aguest operating system 330 within virtual machine 332. In still otherembodiments, virtual machine 332 may execute guest operating system 330.

In addition to creating virtual machines 332, hypervisor 302 may controlthe execution of at least one virtual machine 332. In other embodiments,hypervisor 302 may present at least one virtual machine 332 with anabstraction of at least one hardware resource provided by thevirtualization server 301 (e.g., any hardware resource available withinthe hardware layer 310). In other embodiments, hypervisor 302 maycontrol the manner in which virtual machines 332 access physicalprocessors 308 available in virtualization server 301. Controllingaccess to physical processors 308 may include determining whether avirtual machine 332 should have access to a processor 308, and howphysical processor capabilities are presented to the virtual machine332.

As shown in FIG. 3, virtualization server 301 may host or execute one ormore virtual machines 332. A virtual machine 332 is a set of executableinstructions that, when executed by a processor 308, may imitate theoperation of a physical computer such that the virtual machine 332 canexecute programs and processes much like a physical computing device.While FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment where a virtualization server 301hosts three virtual machines 332, in other embodiments virtualizationserver 301 can host any number of virtual machines 332. Hypervisor 302,in some embodiments, may provide each virtual machine 332 with a uniquevirtual view of the physical hardware, memory, processor, and othersystem resources available to that virtual machine 332. In someembodiments, the unique virtual view can be based on one or more ofvirtual machine permissions, application of a policy engine to one ormore virtual machine identifiers, a user accessing a virtual machine,the applications executing on a virtual machine, networks accessed by avirtual machine, or any other desired criteria. For instance, hypervisor302 may create one or more unsecure virtual machines 332 and one or moresecure virtual machines 332. Unsecure virtual machines 332 may beprevented from accessing resources, hardware, memory locations, andprograms that secure virtual machines 332 may be permitted to access. Inother embodiments, hypervisor 302 may provide each virtual machine 332with a substantially similar virtual view of the physical hardware,memory, processor, and other system resources available to the virtualmachines 332.

Each virtual machine 332 may include a virtual disk 326A-C (generally326) and a virtual processor 328A-C (generally 328.) The virtual disk326, in some embodiments, is a virtualized view of one or more physicaldisks 304 of the virtualization server 301, or a portion of one or morephysical disks 304 of the virtualization server 301. The virtualizedview of the physical disks 304 can be generated, provided, and managedby the hypervisor 302. In some embodiments, hypervisor 302 provides eachvirtual machine 332 with a unique view of the physical disks 304. Thus,in these embodiments, the particular virtual disk 326 included in eachvirtual machine 332 can be unique when compared with the other virtualdisks 326.

A virtual processor 328 can be a virtualized view of one or morephysical processors 308 of the virtualization server 301. In someembodiments, the virtualized view of the physical processors 308 can begenerated, provided, and managed by hypervisor 302. In some embodiments,virtual processor 328 has substantially all of the same characteristicsof at least one physical processor 308. In other embodiments, virtualprocessor 308 provides a modified view of physical processors 308 suchthat at least some of the characteristics of the virtual processor 328are different than the characteristics of the corresponding physicalprocessor 308.

With further reference to FIG. 4, some aspects described herein may beimplemented in a cloud-based environment. FIG. 4 illustrates an exampleof a cloud computing environment (or cloud system) 400. As seen in FIG.4, client computers 411-414 may communicate with a cloud managementserver 410 to access the computing resources (e.g., host servers 403a-403 b (generally referred herein as “host servers 403”), storageresources 404 a-404 b (generally referred herein as “storage resources404”), and network resources 405 a-405 b (generally referred herein as“network resources 405”)) of the cloud system.

Management server 410 may be implemented on one or more physicalservers. The management server 410 may run, for example, CLOUDPLATFORMby Citrix Systems, Inc. of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., or OPENSTACK, amongothers. Management server 410 may manage various computing resources,including cloud hardware and software resources, for example, hostcomputers 403, data storage devices 404, and networking devices 405. Thecloud hardware and software resources may include private and/or publiccomponents. For example, a cloud may be configured as a private cloud tobe used by one or more particular customers or client computers 411-414and/or over a private network. In other embodiments, public clouds orhybrid public-private clouds may be used by other customers over an openor hybrid networks.

Management server 410 may be configured to provide user interfacesthrough which cloud operators and cloud customers may interact with thecloud system 400. For example, the management server 410 may provide aset of application programming interfaces (APIs) and/or one or morecloud operator console applications (e.g., web-based or standaloneapplications) with user interfaces to allow cloud operators to managethe cloud resources, configure the virtualization layer, manage customeraccounts, and perform other cloud administration tasks. The managementserver 410 also may include a set of APIs and/or one or more customerconsole applications with user interfaces configured to receive cloudcomputing requests from end users via client computers 411-414, forexample, requests to create, modify, or destroy virtual machines withinthe cloud. Client computers 411-414 may connect to management server 410via the Internet or some other communication network, and may requestaccess to one or more of the computing resources managed by managementserver 410. In response to client requests, the management server 410may include a resource manager configured to select and provisionphysical resources in the hardware layer of the cloud system based onthe client requests. For example, the management server 410 andadditional components of the cloud system may be configured toprovision, create, and manage virtual machines and their operatingenvironments (e.g., hypervisors, storage resources, services offered bythe network elements, etc.) for customers at client computers 411-414,over a network (e.g., the Internet), providing customers withcomputational resources, data storage services, networking capabilities,and computer platform and application support. Cloud systems also may beconfigured to provide various specific services, including securitysystems, development environments, user interfaces, and the like.

Certain clients 411-414 may be related, for example, different clientcomputers creating virtual machines on behalf of the same end user, ordifferent users affiliated with the same company or organization. Inother examples, certain clients 411-414 may be unrelated, such as usersaffiliated with different companies or organizations. For unrelatedclients, information on the virtual machines or storage of any one usermay be hidden from other users.

Referring now to the physical hardware layer of a cloud computingenvironment, availability zones 401-402 (or zones) may refer to acollocated set of physical computing resources. Zones may begeographically separated from other zones in the overall cloud ofcomputing resources. For example, zone 401 may be a first clouddatacenter located in California, and zone 402 may be a second clouddatacenter located in Florida. Management server 410 may be located atone of the availability zones, or at a separate location. Each zone mayinclude an internal network that interfaces with devices that areoutside of the zone, such as the management server 410, through agateway. End users of the cloud (e.g., clients 411-414) might or mightnot be aware of the distinctions between zones. For example, an end usermay request the creation of a virtual machine having a specified amountof memory, processing power, and network capabilities. The managementserver 410 may respond to the user's request and may allocate theresources to create the virtual machine without the user knowing whetherthe virtual machine was created using resources from zone 401 or zone402. In other examples, the cloud system may allow end users to requestthat virtual machines (or other cloud resources) are allocated in aspecific zone or on specific resources 403-405 within a zone.

In this example, each zone 401-402 may include an arrangement of variousphysical hardware components (or computing resources) 403-405, forexample, physical hosting resources (or processing resources), physicalnetwork resources, physical storage resources, switches, and additionalhardware resources that may be used to provide cloud computing servicesto customers. The physical hosting resources in a cloud zone 401-402 mayinclude one or more computer servers 403, such as the virtualizationservers 301 described above, which may be configured to create and hostvirtual machine instances. The physical network resources in a cloudzone 401 or 402 may include one or more network elements 405 (e.g.,network service providers) comprising hardware and/or softwareconfigured to provide a network service to cloud customers, such asfirewalls, network address translators, load balancers, virtual privatenetwork (VPN) gateways, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)routers, and the like. The storage resources in the cloud zone 401-402may include storage disks (e.g., solid state drives (SSDs), magnetichard disks, etc.) and other storage devices.

The example cloud computing environment shown in FIG. 4 also may includea virtualization layer (e.g., as shown in FIGS. 1-3) with additionalhardware and/or software resources configured to create and managevirtual machines and provide other services to customers using thephysical resources in the cloud. The virtualization layer may includehypervisors, as described above in FIG. 3, along with other componentsto provide network virtualizations, storage virtualizations, etc. Thevirtualization layer may be as a separate layer from the physicalresource layer, or may share some or all of the same hardware and/orsoftware resources with the physical resource layer. For example, thevirtualization layer may include a hypervisor installed in each of thevirtualization servers 403 with the physical computing resources. Knowncloud systems may alternatively be used, e.g., WINDOWS AZURE (MicrosoftCorporation of Redmond Wash.), AMAZON EC2 (Amazon.com Inc. of Seattle,Wash.), IBM BLUE CLOUD (IBM Corporation of Armonk, N.Y.), or others.

Cloud Service Enterprise Mobility Managemnent Architecture

FIG. 5 represents an enterprise mobility technical architecture 500 foruse in a “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) environment. The architectureenables a user of a mobile device 502 to both access enterprise orpersonal resources from a mobile device 502 and use the mobile device502 for personal use. The user may access such enterprise resources 504or enterprise services 508 using a mobile device 502 that is purchasedby the user or a mobile device 502 that is provided by the enterprise tothe user. The user may utilize the mobile device 502 for business useonly or for business and personal use. The mobile device 502 may run aniOS operating system, an Android operating system, or the like. Theenterprise may choose to implement policies to manage the mobile device502. The policies may be implemented through a firewall or gateway insuch a way that the mobile device 502 may be identified, secured orsecurity verified, and provided selective or full access to theenterprise resources (e.g., 504 and 508.) The policies may be mobiledevice management policies, mobile application management policies,mobile data management policies, or some combination of mobile device,application, and data management policies. A mobile device 502 that ismanaged through the application of mobile device management policies maybe referred to as an enrolled device.

In some embodiments, the operating system of the mobile device 502 maybe separated into a managed partition 510 and an unmanaged partition512. The managed partition 510 may have policies applied to it to securethe applications running on and data stored in the managed partition510. The applications running on the managed partition 510 may be secureapplications. In other embodiments, all applications may execute inaccordance with a set of one or more policy files received separate fromthe application, and which define one or more security parameters,features, resource restrictions, and/or other access controls that areenforced by the mobile device management system when that application isexecuting on the mobile device 502. By operating in accordance withtheir respective policy file(s), each application may be allowed orrestricted from communications with one or more other applicationsand/or resources, thereby creating a virtual partition. Thus, as usedherein, a partition may refer to a physically partitioned portion ofmemory (physical partition), a logically partitioned portion of memory(logical partition), and/or a virtual partition created as a result ofenforcement of one or more policies and/or policy files across multipleapplications as described herein (virtual partition). Stateddifferently, by enforcing policies on managed applications, thoseapplications may be restricted to only be able to communicate with othermanaged applications and trusted enterprise resources, thereby creatinga virtual partition that is impenetrable by unmanaged applications anddevices.

The secure applications may be email applications, web browsingapplications, software-as-a-service (SaaS) access applications, WindowsApplication access applications, and the like. The secure applicationsmay be secure native applications 514, secure remote applications 522executed by a secure application launcher 518, virtualizationapplications 526 executed by a secure application launcher 518, and thelike. The secure native applications 514 may be wrapped by a secureapplication wrapper 520. The secure application wrapper 520 may includeintegrated policies that are executed on the mobile device 502 when thesecure native application 514 is executed on the mobile device 502. Thesecure application wrapper 520 may include meta-data that points thesecure native application 514 running on the mobile device 502 to theresources hosted at the enterprise (e.g., 504 and 508) that the securenative application 514 may require to complete the task requested uponexecution of the secure native application 514. The secure remoteapplications 522 executed by a secure application launcher 518 may beexecuted within the secure application launcher 518. The virtualizationapplications 526 executed by a secure application launcher 518 mayutilize resources on the mobile device 502, at the enterprise resources504, and the like. The resources used on the mobile device 502 by thevirtualization applications 526 executed by a secure applicationlauncher 518 may include user interaction resources, processingresources, and the like. The user interaction resources may be used tocollect and transmit keyboard input, mouse input, camera input, tactileinput, audio input, visual input, gesture input, and the like. Theprocessing resources may be used to present a user interface, processdata received from the enterprise resources 504, and the like. Theresources used at the enterprise resources 504 by the virtualizationapplications 526 executed by a secure application launcher 518 mayinclude user interface generation resources, processing resources, andthe like. The user interface generation resources may be used toassemble a user interface, modify a user interface, refresh a userinterface, and the like. The processing resources may be used to createinformation, read information, update information, delete information,and the like. For example, the virtualization application 526 may recorduser interactions associated with a graphical user interface (GUI) andcommunicate them to a server application where the server applicationwill use the user interaction data as an input to the applicationoperating on the server. In such an arrangement, an enterprise may electto maintain the application on the server side as well as data, files,etc. associated with the application. While an enterprise may elect to“mobilize” some applications in accordance with the principles herein bysecuring them for deployment on the mobile device 502, this arrangementmay also be elected for certain applications. For example, while someapplications may be secured for use on the mobile device 502, othersmight not be prepared or appropriate for deployment on the mobile device502 so the enterprise may elect to provide the mobile user access to theunprepared applications through virtualization techniques. As anotherexample, the enterprise may have large complex applications with largeand complex data sets (e.g., material resource planning applications)where it would be very difficult, or otherwise undesirable, to customizethe application for the mobile device 502 so the enterprise may elect toprovide access to the application through virtualization techniques. Asyet another example, the enterprise may have an application thatmaintains highly secured data (e.g., human resources data, customerdata, engineering data) that may be deemed by the enterprise as toosensitive for even the secured mobile environment so the enterprise mayelect to use virtualization techniques to permit mobile access to suchapplications and data. An enterprise may elect to provide both fullysecured and fully functional applications on the mobile device 502 aswell as a virtualization application 526 to allow access to applicationsthat are deemed more properly operated on the server side. In anembodiment, the virtualization application 526 may store some data,files, etc. on the mobile device 502 in one of the secure storagelocations. An enterprise, for example, may elect to allow certaininformation to be stored on the mobile device 502 while not permittingother information.

In connection with the virtualization application 526, as describedherein, the mobile device 502 may have a virtualization application 526that is designed to present GUIs and then record user interactions withthe GUI. The virtualization application 526 may communicate the userinteractions to the server side to be used by the server sideapplication as user interactions with the application. In response, theapplication on the server side may transmit back to the mobile device502 a new GUI. For example, the new GUI may be a static page, a dynamicpage, an animation, or the like, thereby providing access to remotelylocated resources.

The secure applications 514 may access data stored in a secure datacontainer 528 in the managed partition 510 of the mobile device 502. Thedata secured in the secure data container may be accessed by the securenative applications 514, secure remote applications 522 executed by asecure application launcher 518, virtualization applications 526executed by a secure application launcher 518, and the like. The datastored in the secure data container 528 may include files, databases,and the like. The data stored in the secure data container 528 mayinclude data restricted to a specific secure application 530, sharedamong secure applications 532, and the like. Data restricted to a secureapplication may include secure general data 534 and highly secure data538. Secure general data may use a strong form of encryption such asAdvanced Encryption Standard (AES) 128-bit encryption or the like, whilehighly secure data 538 may use a very strong form of encryption such asAES 256-bit encryption. Data stored in the secure data container 528 maybe deleted from the mobile device 502 upon receipt of a command from thedevice manager 524. The secure applications (e.g., 514, 522, and 526)may have a dual-mode option 540. The dual mode option 540 may presentthe user with an option to operate the secured application in anunsecured or unmanaged mode. In an unsecured or unmanaged mode, thesecure applications may access data stored in an unsecured datacontainer 542 on the unmanaged partition 512 of the mobile device 502.The data stored in an unsecured data container may be personal data 544.The data stored in an unsecured data container 542 may also be accessedby unsecured applications 546 that are running on the unmanagedpartition 512 of the mobile device 502. The data stored in an unsecureddata container 542 may remain on the mobile device 502 when the datastored in the secure data container 528 is deleted from the mobiledevice 502. An enterprise may want to delete from the mobile device 502selected or all data, files, and/or applications owned, licensed orcontrolled by the enterprise (enterprise data) while leaving orotherwise preserving personal data, files, and/or applications owned,licensed or controlled by the user (personal data). This operation maybe referred to as a selective wipe. With the enterprise and personaldata arranged in accordance to the aspects described herein, anenterprise may perform a selective wipe.

The mobile device 502 may connect to enterprise resources 504 andenterprise services 508 at an enterprise, to the public Internet 548,and the like. The mobile device 502 may connect to enterprise resources504 and enterprise services 508 through virtual private networkconnections. The virtual private network connections, also referred toas microVPN or application-specific VPN, may be specific to particularapplications 550, particular devices, particular secured areas on themobile device 552, and the like. For example, each of the wrappedapplications in the secured area of the mobile device 502 may accessenterprise resources through an application specific VPN such thataccess to the VPN would be granted based on attributes associated withthe application, possibly in conjunction with user or device attributeinformation. The virtual private network connections may carry MicrosoftExchange traffic, Microsoft Active Directory traffic, HyperText TransferProtocol (HTTP) traffic, HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS)traffic, application management traffic, and the like. The virtualprivate network connections may support and enable single-sign-onauthentication processes 554. The single-sign-on processes may allow auser to provide a single set of authentication credentials, which arethen verified by an authentication service 558. The authenticationservice 558 may then grant to the user access to multiple enterpriseresources 504, without requiring the user to provide authenticationcredentials to each individual enterprise resource 504.

The virtual private network connections may be established and managedby an access gateway 560. The access gateway 560 may include performanceenhancement features that manage, accelerate, and improve the deliveryof enterprise resources 504 to the mobile device 502. The access gateway560 may also re-route traffic from the mobile device 502 to the publicInternet 548, enabling the mobile device 502 to access publiclyavailable and unsecured applications that run on the public Internet548. The mobile device 502 may connect to the access gateway via atransport network 562. The transport network 562 may be a wired network,wireless network, cloud network, local area network, metropolitan areanetwork, wide area network, public network, private network, and thelike.

The enterprise resources 504 may include email servers, file sharingservers, SaaS applications, Web application servers, Windows applicationservers, and the like. Email servers may include Exchange servers, LotusNotes servers, and the like. File sharing servers may include ShareFileservers, and the like. SaaS applications may include Salesforce, and thelike. Windows application servers may include any application serverthat is built to provide applications that are intended to run on alocal Windows operating system, and the like. The enterprise resources504 may be premise-based resources, cloud-based resources, and the like.The enterprise resources 504 may be accessed by the mobile device 502directly or through the access gateway 560. The enterprise resources 504may be accessed by the mobile device 502 via the transport network 562.

The enterprise services 508 may include authentication services 558,threat detection services 564, device manager services 524, file sharingservices 568, policy manager services 570, social integration services572, application controller services 574, and the like. Authenticationservices 558 may include user authentication services, deviceauthentication services, application authentication services, dataauthentication services, and the like. Authentication services 558 mayuse certificates. The certificates may be stored on the mobile device502, by the enterprise resources 504, and the like. The certificatesstored on the mobile device 502 may be stored in an encrypted locationon the mobile device 502, the certificate may be temporarily stored onthe mobile device 502 for use at the time of authentication, and thelike. Threat detection services 564 may include intrusion detectionservices, unauthorized access attempt detection services, and the like.Unauthorized access attempt detection services may include unauthorizedattempts to access devices, applications, data, and the like. Devicemanagement services 524 may include configuration, provisioning,security, support, monitoring, reporting, and decommissioning services.File sharing services 568 may include file management services, filestorage services, file collaboration services, and the like. Policymanager services 570 may include device policy manager services,application policy manager services, data policy manager services, andthe like. Social integration services 572 may include contactintegration services, collaboration services, integration with socialnetworks such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and the like.Application controller services 574 may include management services,provisioning services, deployment services, assignment services,revocation services, wrapping services, and the like.

The enterprise mobility technical architecture 500 may include anapplication store 578. The application store 578 may include unwrappedapplications 580, pre-wrapped applications 582, and the like.Applications may be populated in the application store 578 from theapplication controller 574. The application store 578 may be accessed bythe mobile device 502 through the access gateway 560, through the publicInternet 548, or the like. The application store 578 may be providedwith an intuitive and easy to use user interface.

A software development kit 584 may provide a user the capability tosecure applications selected by the user by wrapping the application asdescribed previously in this description. An application that has beenwrapped using the software development kit 584 may then be madeavailable to the mobile device 502 by populating it in the applicationstore 578 using the application controller 574.

The enterprise mobility technical architecture 500 may include amanagement and analytics capability 588. The management and analyticscapability 588 may provide information related to how resources areused, how often resources are used, and the like. Resources may includedevices, applications, data, and the like. How resources are used mayinclude which devices download which applications, which applicationsaccess which data, and the like. How often resources are used mayinclude how often an application has been downloaded, how many times aspecific set of data has been accessed by an application, and the like.

FIG. 6 is another illustrative enterprise mobility management system600. Some of the components of the mobility management system 500described above with reference to FIG. 5 have been omitted for the sakeof simplicity. The architecture of the system 600 depicted in FIG. 6 issimilar in many respects to the architecture of the system 500 describedabove with reference to FIG. 5 and may include additional features notmentioned above.

In this case, the left hand side represents an enrolled mobile device602 with a client agent 604, which interacts with gateway server 606(which includes Access Gateway and application controller functionality)to access various enterprise resources 608 and services 609 such asExchange, Sharepoint, public-key infrastructure (PM) Resources, KerberosResources, Certificate Issuance service, as shown on the right hand sideabove. Although not specifically shown, the mobile device 602 may alsointeract with an enterprise application store (StoreFront) for theselection and downloading of applications.

The client agent 604 acts as the UI (user interface) intermediary forWindows apps/desktops hosted in an Enterprise data center, which areaccessed using the High-Definition User Experience (HDX)/ICA displayremoting protocol. The client agent 604 also supports the installationand management of native applications on the mobile device 602, such asnative iOS or Android applications. For example, the managedapplications 610 (mail, browser, wrapped application) shown in thefigure above are all native applications that execute locally on themobile device 602. Client agent 604 and application management frameworkof this architecture act to provide policy driven managementcapabilities and features such as connectivity and SSO (single sign on)to enterprise resources/services 608. The client agent 604 handlesprimary user authentication to the enterprise, normally to AccessGateway (AG) 606 with SSO to other gateway server components. The clientagent 604 obtains policies from gateway server 606 to control thebehavior of the managed applications 610 on the mobile device 602.

The Secure InterProcess Communication (IPC) links 612 between the nativeapplications 610 and client agent 604 represent a management channel,which may allow a client agent to supply policies to be enforced by theapplication management framework 614 “wrapping” each application. TheIPC channel 612 may also allow client agent 604 to supply credential andauthentication information that enables connectivity and SSO toenterprise resources 608. Finally, the IPC channel 612 may allow theapplication management framework 614 to invoke user interface functionsimplemented by client agent 604, such as online and offlineauthentication.

Communications between the client agent 604 and gateway server 606 areessentially an extension of the management channel from the applicationmanagement framework 614 wrapping each native managed application 610.The application management framework 614 may request policy informationfrom client agent 604, which in turn may request it from gateway server606. The application management framework 614 may requestauthentication, and client agent 604 may log into the gateway servicespart of gateway server 606 (also known as NETSCALER ACCESS GATEWAY).Client agent 604 may also call supporting services on gateway server606, which may produce input material to derive encryption keys for thelocal data vaults 616, or may provide client certificates which mayenable direct authentication to PKI protected resources, as more fullyexplained below.

In more detail, the application management framework 614 “wraps” eachmanaged application 610. This may be incorporated via an explicit buildstep, or via a post-build processing step. The application managementframework 614 may “pair” with client agent 604 on first launch of anapplication 610 to initialize the Secure IPC channel 612 and obtain thepolicy for that application. The application management framework 614may enforce relevant portions of the policy that apply locally, such asthe client agent login dependencies and some of the containment policiesthat restrict how local OS services may be used, or how they mayinteract with the managed application 610.

The application management framework 614 may use services provided byclient agent 604 over the Secure IPC channel 612 to facilitateauthentication and internal network access. Key management for theprivate and shared data vaults 616 (containers) may be also managed byappropriate interactions between the managed applications 610 and clientagent 604. Vaults 616 may be available only after online authentication,or may be made available after offline authentication if allowed bypolicy. First use of vaults 616 may require online authentication, andoffline access may be limited to at most the policy refresh periodbefore online authentication is again required.

Network access to internal resources may occur directly from individualmanaged applications 610 through Access Gateway 606. The applicationmanagement framework 614 may be responsible for orchestrating thenetwork access on behalf of each managed application 610. Client agent604 may facilitate these network connections by providing suitable timelimited secondary credentials obtained following online authentication.Multiple modes of network connection may be used, such as reverse webproxy connections and end-to-end VPN-style tunnels 618.

The Mail and Browser managed applications 610 have special status andmay make use of facilities that might not be generally available toarbitrary wrapped applications. For example, the Mail application 610may use a special background network access mechanism that allows it toaccess an Exchange server 608 over an extended period of time withoutrequiring a full AG logon. The Browser application 610 may use multipleprivate data vaults 616 to segregate different kinds of data.

This architecture may support the incorporation of various othersecurity features. For example, gateway server 606 (including itsgateway services) in some cases may not need to validate activedirectory (AD) passwords. It can be left to the discretion of anenterprise whether an AD password may be used as an authenticationfactor for some users in some situations. Different authenticationmethods may be used if a user is online or offline (i.e., connected ornot connected to a network).

Step up authentication is a feature wherein gateway server 606 mayidentify managed native applications 610 that are allowed to have accessto highly classified data requiring strong authentication, and ensurethat access to these applications is only permitted after performingappropriate authentication, even if this means a re-authentication isrequired by the user after a prior weaker level of login.

Another security feature of this solution is the encryption of the datavaults 616 (containers) on the mobile device 602. The vaults 616 may beencrypted so that all on-device data including files, databases, andconfigurations are protected. For on-line vaults, the keys may be storedon the server (gateway server 606), and for off-line vaults, a localcopy of the keys may be protected by a user password or biometricvalidation. If or when data is stored locally on the mobile device 602in the secure container 616, it may be preferred that a minimum of AES256 encryption algorithm be utilized.

Other secure container features may also be implemented. For example, alogging feature may be included, wherein security events happeninginside a managed application 610 may be logged and reported to thebackend. Data wiping may be supported, such as if or when the managedapplication 610 detects tampering, associated encryption keys may bewritten over with random data, leaving no hint on the file system thatuser data was destroyed. Screenshot protection may be another feature,where an application may prevent any data from being stored inscreenshots. For example, the key window's hidden property may be set toYES. This may cause whatever content is currently displayed on thescreen to be hidden, resulting in a blank screenshot where any contentwould normally reside.

Local data transfer may be prevented, such as by preventing any datafrom being locally transferred outside the application container, e.g.,by copying it or sending it to an external application. A keyboard cachefeature may operate to disable the autocorrect functionality forsensitive text fields. SSL certificate validation may be operable so theapplication specifically validates the server SSL certificate instead ofit being stored in the keychain. An encryption key generation featuremay be used such that the key used to encrypt data on the mobile device602 is generated using a passphrase or biometric data supplied by theuser (if offline access is required). It may be XORed with another keyrandomly generated and stored on the server side if offline access isnot required. Key Derivation functions may operate such that keysgenerated from the user password use KDFs (key derivation functions,notably Password-Based Key Derivation Function 2 (PBKDF2)) rather thancreating a cryptographic hash of it. The latter makes a key susceptibleto brute force or dictionary attacks.

Further, one or more initialization vectors may be used in encryptionmethods. An initialization vector will cause multiple copies of the sameencrypted data to yield different cipher text output, preventing bothreplay and cryptanalytic attacks. This will also prevent an attackerfrom decrypting any data even with a stolen encryption key if thespecific initialization vector used to encrypt the data is not known.Further, authentication then decryption may be used, wherein applicationdata is decrypted only after the user has authenticated within theapplication. Another feature may relate to sensitive data in memory,which may be kept in memory (and not in disk) only when it's needed. Forexample, login credentials may be wiped from memory after login, andencryption keys and other data inside objective-C instance variables arenot stored, as they may be easily referenced. Instead, memory may bemanually allocated for these.

An inactivity timeout may be implemented, wherein after a policy-definedperiod of inactivity, a user session is terminated.

Data leakage from the application management framework 614 may beprevented in other ways. For example, if or when a managed application610 is put in the background, the memory may be cleared after apredetermined (configurable) time period. When backgrounded, a snapshotmay be taken of the last displayed screen of the application to fastenthe foregrounding process. The screenshot may contain confidential dataand hence should be cleared.

Another security feature may relate to the use of an OTP (one timepassword) 620 without the use of an AD (active directory) 622 passwordfor access to one or more applications. In some cases, some users do notknow (or are not permitted to know) their AD password, so these usersmay authenticate using an OTP 620 such as by using a hardware OTP systemlike SecurID (OTPs may be provided by different vendors also, such asEntrust or Gemalto). In some cases, after a user authenticates with auser ID, a text may be sent to the user with an OTP 620. In some cases,this may be implemented only for online use, with a prompt being asingle field.

An offline password may be implemented for offline authentication forthose managed applications 610 for which offline use is permitted viaenterprise policy. For example, an enterprise may want StoreFront to beaccessed in this manner. In this case, the client agent 604 may requirethe user to set a custom offline password and the AD password is notused. Gateway server 606 may provide policies to control and enforcepassword standards with respect to the minimum length, character classcomposition, and age of passwords, such as described by the standardWindows Server password complexity requirements, although theserequirements may be modified.

Another feature may relate to the enablement of a client sidecertificate for certain applications 610 as secondary credentials (forthe purpose of accessing PKI protected web resources via the applicationmanagement framework micro VPN feature). For example, a managedapplication 610 may utilize such a certificate. In this case,certificate-based authentication using ActiveSync protocol may besupported, wherein a certificate from the client agent 604 may beretrieved by gateway server 606 and used in a keychain. Each managedapplication 610 may have one associated client certificate, identifiedby a label that is defined in gateway server 606.

Gateway server 606 may interact with an enterprise special purpose webservice to support the issuance of client certificates to allow relevantmanaged applications to authenticate to internal PM protected resources.

The client agent 604 and the application management framework 614 may beenhanced to support obtaining and using client certificates forauthentication to internal PM protected network resources. More than onecertificate may be supported, such as to match various levels ofsecurity and/or separation requirements. The certificates may be used bythe Mail and Browser managed applications 610, and ultimately byarbitrary wrapped applications 610 (provided those applications use webservice style communication patterns where it is reasonable for theapplication management framework to mediate HTTPS requests).

Application management client certificate support on iOS may rely onimporting a public-key cryptography standards (PKCS) 12 BLOB (BinaryLarge Object) into the iOS keychain in each managed application 610 foreach period of use. Application management framework client certificatesupport may use a HTTPS implementation with private in-memory keystorage. The client certificate may not be present in the iOS keychainand may not be persisted except potentially in “online-only” data valuethat is strongly protected.

Mutual SSL may also be implemented to provide additional security byrequiring that a mobile device 602 is authenticated to the enterprise,and vice versa. Virtual smart cards for authentication to gateway server606 may also be implemented.

Both limited and full Kerberos support may be additional features. Thefull support feature relates to an ability to do full Kerberos login toActive Directory (AD) 622, using an AD password or trusted clientcertificate, and obtain Kerberos service tickets to respond to HTTPNegotiate authentication challenges. The limited support feature relatesto constrained delegation in Citrix Access Gateway Enterprise Edition(AGEE), where AGEE supports invoking Kerberos protocol transition so itcan obtain and use Kerberos service tickets (subject to constraineddelegation) in response to HTTP Negotiate authentication challenges.This mechanism works in reverse web proxy (aka corporate virtual privatenetwork (CVPN)) mode, and when HTTP (but not HTTPS) connections areproxied in VPN and MicroVPN mode.

Another feature may relate to application container locking and wiping,which may automatically occur upon jail-break or rooting detections, andoccur as a pushed command from administration console, and may include aremote wipe functionality even when a managed application 610 is notrunning.

A multi-site architecture or configuration of enterprise applicationstore and an application controller may be supported that allows usersto be serviced from one of several different locations in case offailure.

In some cases, managed applications 610 may be allowed to access acertificate and private key via an API (for example, OpenSSL). Trustedmanaged applications 610 of an enterprise may be allowed to performspecific Public Key operations with an application's client certificateand private key. Various use cases may be identified and treatedaccordingly, such as if or when an application behaves like a browserand no certificate access is required, if or when an application reads acertificate for “who am I,” if or when an application uses thecertificate to build a secure session token, and if or when anapplication uses private keys for digital signing of important data(e.g. transaction log) or for temporary data encryption.

Managing Cloud Service Automation of Common Image

As discussed above, aspects of the disclosure relate to managing cloudservice automation of common image. In addition, one or more aspects ofthe disclosure may incorporate, be embodied in, and/or be implementedusing one or more of the computer system architecture, remote-accesssystem architecture, virtualized (hypervisor) system architecture,cloud-based system architecture, and/or enterprise mobility managementsystems discussed above in connection with FIGS. 1-6.

FIG. 7 depicts an illustrative computing environment for managing cloudservice automation of common image in accordance with one or moreillustrative aspects described herein. Referring to FIG. 7, computingenvironment 700 may include an image update orchestrator 710, a policymanaged device testing environment 720, a policy managed deviceproduction environment 730, client device 740, a virtual machineinstance 750, an enterprise network 760 and a common image database 770.Image update orchestrator 710, policy managed device testing environment720, policy managed device production environment 730, client device740, virtual machine instance 750 and common image database 770 mayinclude one or more physical components, such as one or more processors,memories, communication interfaces, and/or the like.

Image update orchestrator 710 may include processor 711, memory 712,communication interface 713 and data store 714. Processor 711 mayexecute instructions stored in memory 712 to cause image updateorchestrator 710 to perform one or more functions, such as generating asealed master image and cause to deploy the sealed master image topolicy managed device testing environment 720 and policy managed deviceproduction environment 730. Communication interface 713 may include oneor more network interfaces via which image update orchestrator 710 cancommunicate with one or more other systems and/or devices in computingenvironment 700, such as, policy managed device testing environment 720,policy managed device production environment 730, client device 740,virtual machine instance 750 and common image database 770. Memory 712may include a virtual machine image, a sealed master image, an unsealedmaster image, a stable master image and an unstable master image (notshown) which may store the these images temporarily before they aretransmitted to and from policy managed device testing environment 720,policy managed device production environment 730, client device 740,virtual machine instance 750 and common image database 770. Image updateorchestrator 710 may host data store 714, which may provide storage ofbig data in the cloud computing environment. In some examples, datastore 714 may include a common image database (not shown). Such databasesystem may contain records including a list of virtual machines runningon the policy managed devices, the common virtual machine images such asthe sealed master images or stable master images installed on the policymanaged devices, the patches, software updated and default configurationsettings associated with the common virtual machine images. In someexamples, enterprise users in the cloud computing environment may usethe common virtual machine images as templates for creating new virtualmachine instances or provisioning policy managed devices. The commonimage database may be visible to enterprise users so that they may viewthe patches, the software updates, default configuration settings andthe common virtual machine images, and choose virtual machine imagesfrom a catalog to create images or save their own images from runningvirtual machine instances. In some embodiments, the virtual machineimages may be plain operating system images or may have software updatesinstalled on them, such as databases, application servers, orinfrastructural applications. In some examples, virtual machine imagesmay remove some data related to runtime operations, such as swap dataand configuration files with embedded IP addresses or host names.

In some examples, as illustrated in FIG. 7, data store 714 may reside onimage update orchestrator 710. In alternative arrangements, on imageupdate orchestrator 710 and data store 714 may reside on the separatecomputing devices, and data store 714 may be managed by image updateorchestrator 710 remotely. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 7, commonimage database 770 may reside on a data store separately from imageupdate orchestrator 710.

Image update orchestrator 710 may be associated with an enterpriseorganization and may send and receive information to policy manageddevice testing environment 720, policy managed device productionenvironment 730, client device 740, virtual machine instance 750, andother computing devices of computing environment 700. Image updateorchestrator 710 may manage policy managed device testing environment720, policy managed device production environment 730, client device740, virtual machine instance 750 for the purpose of managing automationof common virtual machine images. Enterprise users may access commonvirtual machine images through policy managed device testing environment720, policy managed device production environment 730, and client device740. Policy managed device testing environment 720, policy manageddevice production environment 730 and client device 740 may be any typeof computing device including, for example, a server, computer, laptop,tablet, smartphone, or other client device that includes a processor(e.g., computing device 201). Image update orchestrator 710 may spin upvirtual machine instance 750 using any type of computing device. Policymanaged device testing environment 720, policy managed device productionenvironment 730 and client device 740 may communicate, via theircommunication interfaces (e.g., wireless interfaces, LAN interfaces,WLAN interfaces), with other devices and/or entities such as imageupdate orchestrator 710, as discussed in greater detail below. Policymanaged device testing environment 720, policy managed device productionenvironment 730 and client device 740 may also communicate with variousnetwork nodes described herein.

Enterprise network 760 may include one or more wide area networks and/orlocal area networks and may interconnect one or more systems and/ordevices included in computing environment 700. For example, enterprisenetwork 760 may interconnect image update orchestrator 710, policymanaged device testing environment 720, policy managed device productionenvironment 730 and client device 740 and virtual machine instance 750.

Environment 700 may include policy managed device testing environment720, policy managed device production environment 730, which may eachinclude a processor, a memory, a communication interface, and a datastore similar to that residing on image update orchestrator 710. In someexamples, policy managed device testing environment 720 and policymanaged device production environment 730 may be managed by a cloudservice to enforce policies associated with common virtual machine imageinstallation, rollback and management. Image update orchestrator maycause a sealed master image to be deployed in policy managed devicetesting environment 720 and a stable master image to be deployed inpolicy managed device production environment 730. Policy managed devicetesting environment 720 may validate the sealed master image and sendvalidation information to image update orchestrator 710. In someexamples, image update orchestrator 710 may mark a sealed master imageas stable based on a positive validation information from policy manageddevice testing environment 720. In an alternative arrangement, imageupdate orchestrator 710 may mark a sealed master image as unstable basedon negative validation information from policy managed device testingenvironment 720. In some examples, policy managed device productionenvironment 730 may collect deployment information of the stable masterimage and report the deployment information to image update orchestrator710. Although only two policy managed device testing environment 720 andpolicy managed device production environment 730 are illustrated in FIG.7, environment 700 may include one or more policy managed devicesrunning in other environment suitable for the enterprises in the cloudcomputing environment. For example, environment 700 may include a policymanaged device development environment, which may be provisioned by thevirtual machine images prior to they are deployed in the testingenvironment, to support staged virtual machine image deployment andvalidation.

FIGS. 8A-8D depict an example event sequence for managing cloud serviceautomation of common image in accordance with one or more illustrativeaspects described herein. The communications between componentsillustrated in FIGS. 8A-8D may be encrypted via Transport Layer Security(TLS) cryptographic protocols or Internet Protocol Security (IPsec)tunnels that provide communications security over a computer network.

Referring to FIG. 8A, at step 801, a requesting service on behalf of aclient device may send request to an image update orchestrator toupgrade a virtual machine image. For example, a requesting service in acloud computing environment may send a request on behalf of clientdevice 740 to image update orchestrator 710 to upgrade a virtual machineimage. In some examples, client device 740 may be a policy manageddevice, such as a policy managed device in a development or testingenvironment. Client device 740 may use a requesting service associatedwith enterprise cloud service to send the request to image updateorchestrator 710. In alternative arrangements, client 740 may send arequest directly to image update orchestrator 710.

In some embodiments, the orchestrated update service provided by imageupdate orchestrator may enable automated updates of virtual machineimages with OS, application, and infrastructure software component on ascheduled basis. In some embodiments, the orchestrated update servicemay enable automated deployment of updated virtual machine images toend-users in a test user group. In some embodiments, the orchestratedupdate service may enable automated promotion of tested virtual machineimages to end-users in a production user group.

At step 802, the requesting service may send a virtual machine image, aplurality of software upgrades to be applied to the virtual machineimage and configuration information to the image update orchestrator.For example, the requesting service may, on behalf of client device 740,send a virtual machine image, a plurality of software upgrades to beapplied to the virtual machine image and configuration information. Thevirtual machine image may be a common image used as catalog image ortemplate to provision numerous policy managed devices in thedevelopment, testing and production environments. The virtual machineimages may be created with the proper patches, software updates anddefault configuration settings. In some embodiments, the virtual machineimage may be generated by client device 740 and the time may arrive forthe virtual machine image to be updated with new OS image, applicationsand software upgrades. In alternative embodiments, the virtual machineimage may be generated by other computing device and send to clientdevice 740 for further updates.

In some examples, the virtual machine image may need update to keep upwith OS updates, which may occur frequently. Thus, there may be a costassociated with the virtual machine image to keep it up to data. In someexamples, an enterprise user may sign up for a cloud service, which maycommunicate with the orchestrated update service that may be responsiblefor automatically updating the components in the virtual machine image,such as OS image or an image for an application agent related to thecloud service.

In some examples, the configuration information may contain thefrequency at which the virtual machine image may be updated. In someexamples, the configuration information may contain the methodology forupdating an image. Some examples of the methodologies may include: runWindows Update, run application-specific update logic, runcustomer-provided update scripts, pull updates from an enterprise'ssoftware update warehouse, or run a third party software update service.In some examples, the configuration information may contain the ActiveDirectory domains which the image may be domain-joined to generate asealed master image after the update process completes. In someexamples, the configuration information may contain the methodology fordeploying an updated image to existing provisioned virtual machines. Forexample, the methodology may relate to connecting the service to adevice manager in the cloud computing environment, or by configuring theservice to use an alternative virtual machine image updating service.

At step 803, the image update orchestrator may start an instance ofvirtual machine. For example, image update orchestrator 710 may startvirtual machine instance 750 with the resources provided in theenterprise cloud computing environment and the spun up virtual machineinstance may be employed as a sandbox to perform upgrade to the commonimage. In some examples, virtual machine instance 750 may be running onpolicy managed devices in a development, testing, or productionenvironment. On alternative arrangements, virtual machine instance 750may be spun up using resources separate from policy managed devices inthe development, testing or production environment.

At step 804, the image update orchestrator may provision, based on theconfiguration information, the instance of virtual machine with thevirtual machine image. For example, image update orchestrator 710 mayprovision virtual machine instance 750 with the received virtual machineimage from client device 740 based on the configuration information. Insome examples, virtual machine instance 750 may be running on a policymanaged device managed by a device manager and image update orchestrator710 may send the virtual machine image to the device manager, which mayin turn install the virtual machine image on virtual machine instance750.

At step 805, the image update orchestrator may cause to install, theplurality of software updates associated with the virtual machine imageto the instance of virtual machine. For example, image updateorchestrator 710 may cause to install the plurality of software updatedto virtual machine instance 750. In some examples, virtual machineinstance 750 may be running on a policy managed device managed by adevice manager and image update orchestrator 710 may send the softwareupdates to the device manager, which install the software upgrades tovirtual machine instance 750.

At step 806, the image update orchestrator may send to a common imagedatabase, a list of installed software updates for the virtual machineimage. For example, image update orchestrator 710 may send to commonimage database 770 the virtual machine image, the plurality of softwareupdates associated with the virtual machine image and the configurationinformation.

In some examples, image update orchestrator 710 may mark certain patchesas updated in the common image database, so the next iteration of imageupdate may be performed incrementally based on specific components inthe virtual machine image that have changed. In some alternativearrangements, image update orchestrator 710 may mark in the common imagedatabase that certain patches, software or OS components as problematicand image update orchestrator 710 may skip those components in thesubsequent updates.

Turning to FIG. 8B, At step 807, the common image database records theinformation on the virtual machine image and the list of installedsoftware updates for the virtual machine image. For example, commonimage database 770 may record information on the virtual machine imageand the installed software updates installed at step 805 for the virtualmachine image. As such, enterprise users may query common image databaseto obtain information on the patches, software updates, applications andOS images associated with the virtual machine image before using theimage as a template to provision a computing device.

At step 808, the image update orchestrator may take a snapshot of thevirtual machine instance based on the virtual machine image with theinstalled list of the installed software updates. For example, imageupdate orchestrator 710 may take a snapshot to record the stateinformation of virtual machine instance 750 in relation to the virtualmachine image and the installed list of the software updates performedat step 805.

In some examples, image update orchestrator 710 may specify a startupscript to execute the update procedure, where the startup script maycall image update orchestrator 710, hold the state information neededfor the execution of the update procedure and, report back the new stateinformation to image update orchestrator 710 after the execution iscomplete.

In some example, image update orchestrator 710 may detect that theupdate procedure is completed, and take a snapshot of the virtualmachine instance with the capability of the hosting technologies. Atthis stage, the snapshot may be up to date, and ready to be used toprovision more virtual machines running in the development, testing orproduction environment.

At step 809, the image update orchestrator may generate a sealed masterimage based on the snapshot. For example, image update orchestrator 710may generate a sealed master image based on the snapshot obtained atstep 808. In some examples, the sealed master image may be considered asready to be used as a template to be deployed to a farm of virtualmachines hosted on the policy managed devices. In some examples, theenterprise users may have multiple active directory domains. For eachspecified Active Directory domain, image update orchestrator 710 maydomain-join the virtual machine images, seal the images, and create anew sealed master image.

At step 810, optionally, the image update orchestrator may terminate theinstance of the virtual machine. For example, image update orchestrator710 may terminate virtual machine instance 750 after the sealed masterimage is generated. In alternative arrangements, image updateorchestrator 710 may keep virtual machine instance 750 up and running tofacilitate generating a new sealed virtual machine image from a requestfrom a new client device.

At step 811, image update orchestrator may cause to deploy, to one ormore policy managed devices in a testing environment, the sealed masterimage, where deploying the sealed master image to the one or more policymanaged devices may enable the one or more policy managed devices toimplement image upgrades using the orchestrated update service. Forexample, image update orchestrator 710 may cause to deploy the sealedmaster image to policy managed device testing environment 720 withminimal user interaction. As a result, policy managed device testingenvironment 720 may be upgraded with the sealed master image via theorchestrated update service.

In some examples, the deployment may be executed by image updateorchestrator 710 or may use the deployment technology built into thepolicy managed devices. Using a coordinated approach, a delivery groupusing the built in deployment technology may create, for example, 1000virtual machines on the policy managed devices from one common image,and later automatically update these 1000 virtual machines with a newcommon image if necessary, eliminating the necessity to apply piecemealupdates to various OS, patches and software updates on these 1000virtual machines at various times. In some examples, the deploymentprocedure may wait for the users to log off, and recreate the virtualmachine instances from the new image, with the functionality is builtinto the policy managed devices. In alternative arrangements, theorchestrated update service may provide an upgrade mode, by coordinatingwith a load balancer to remove some virtual machine instances from theload balancer pool, delete these instances and create the new instancesfrom the new common image.

In some examples, image update orchestrator 710 may start up a virtualmachine on a policy managed device for the purpose of executing theorchestrated update service. For example, image update orchestrator 710may start up a virtual machine on a database server without joining thevirtual machine to the pool of the database servers to serve userrequests. In this case, image update orchestrator 710 may execute anupdate mode and perform some extra steps to disable certain software orperform image update in a network isolated mode, so the update may notinterfere with the production network.

At step 812, the image update orchestrator may send deploymentstatistics to the common image database. For example, image updateorchestrator 710 may send deployment statistics to common image database770 to track the installed patches, software updates and OS images. Insome examples, image update orchestrator 710 may keep track of themachines and the corresponding images that installed on these machines.In some examples, the policy managed devices may report the deploymentinformation and statistics to image update orchestrator 710 and suchinformation may be stored in common image database. For example,enterprise users or administrators may afford visibility to thedeployment statistics and information. The administrators may readilymonitor the updates in an image, or exact version of an image being usedby any given set of machines. When issues arise from the deployment,common image database may provide information on the association betweenthe images and the machines, so that it may facilitate to troubleshootthe issues if they are related to a certain image on certain machines,which may indicate an incompatible image on these machines. In someexamples, image update orchestrator 710 may collect statisticinformation on the deployment, provide graphs and feedback toadministrators on the cost associated with the deployment, such as thecost for conducting each iteration of the orchestrated update serviceand a total cost over a predetermined period time to run such servicefor an enterprise customer.

At step 813 in FIG. 8C, the one or more policy managed devices mayvalidate the sealed master image in the testing environment; and at step814, the one or more policy managed devices may send validationinformation to the image update orchestrator. For example, policymanaged device 720 may validate the sealed master image in the testingenvironment and send the validation information to image updateorchestrator 710. In some examples, the policy managed device mayvalidate that the image updates may not break any functionality of theapplications running in the testing environment.

In some examples, the orchestrated update service may enable stagedrollout in that the sealed master image may be initially rolled out to asmaller testing user group, where the testing users may haveopportunities to test the sealed master image, before releasing to amuch wider user community. In some examples, the orchestrate upgradeservice may cause to deploy the sealed master image to a pool ofmachines or deployments—for example, to rollout to 10% of machines orusers initially, and wait for a predetermined period of time that themachines or users report an error rate not exceeding a predeterminedthreshold. As such, the orchestrate upgrade service may cause to deploythe sealed master image to the remaining machines in the pool. In someembodiments, the rollout mechanism may be controlled by image updateorchestrator 710, where image update orchestrator 710 may deploy thesealed master image to the machines. In some embodiments, image updateorchestrator 710 may forward the sealed master image to a device managerin a cloud computing environment, which may deploy the sealed masterimage to one or more policy managed devices in the testing environment.

At step 815, the image update orchestrator may mark the sealed masterimage as a stable master image based on positive validation information.For example, image update orchestrator 710 may mark the sealed masterimage as a stable master image base on an error rate reported from thepolicy managed not exceeding a predetermined threshold.

At step 816, the image update orchestrator may cause to deploy thestable master image to the policy managed devices in a productionenvironment. For example, image update orchestrator 710 may implement acontrolled staged rollout and cause to deploy the stable master image topolicy managed devices in the production environment 730.

At step 817, the image update orchestrator may mark the sealed masterimage as an unstable master image based on negative validationinformation. For example, image update orchestrator 710 may mark thesealed master image as an unstable master image base on an error ratereported from the policy managed device exceeding a predeterminedthreshold.

At step 818, the image update orchestrator may unseal the sealed masterimage and mark the most recent stable master image as a new stablemaster image. For example, in response to a marking of the unstablemaster image at step 817, image update orchestrator 710 may unseal thesealed master image. The unsealed master image may be subject to furtherreversion or deletion. As such, image update orchestrator 710 mayidentify a most recent stable master image which was generated andvalidated prior to when the unstable master image was created. Imageupdate orchestrator 710 may subsequently mark a most recent stablemaster image as a new stable master image and make it available to bedeployed to one or more policy managed devices.

Finally, at step 819 in FIG. 8D, the image update orchestrator may causeto rollback the unstable master image deployed in the one or more policymanaged devices in the testing environment and deploy the stable masterimage. For example, image update orchestrator may rollback the unstablemaster image deployed in the one or more policy managed devices in thetesting environment and deploy the stable master image generated at step818. As noted, the rollback and deployment operations may be performedby the device manager in the cloud computing environment.

As illustrated in some examples, orchestrated update service may take acoordinated approach to perform all updates to a virtual machine image,take a snapshot, seal the virtual machine image and provision unlimitednumber of virtual machines hosted on the policy managed devices based ona common image. As such, orchestrated update service may be able toapply the latest snapshot that has all the latest updates in the virtualmachine image. In some examples, orchestrated update service maycommunicate with the cloud service and device manager of the policymanaged devices, and point the virtual machine instances on thesedevices to the common image and keep them up to date over time. Forexample, orchestrated update service may monitor the availability of thenew common image and automatically provision the virtual machineinstances with the new common image in a controlled and coordinatedmanner.

In some examples, image update orchestrator may manage a large number ofcommon images and perform updates logic on all of them simultaneously.Likewise, the updates to these common images may run in parallel. Insome examples, updates to the common images may be scheduled foroff-peak hours, or weekend etc., and the image update orchestrator maybe able to leverage the technology to keep the cost to theinfrastructure as low as possible as the image update orchestratorperforms the updates and provisions the virtual machines with the commonimage.

FIG. 9 depicts an illustrative method for managing cloud serviceautomation of common image in accordance with one or more exampleembodiments. Referring to FIG. 9, at step 902, an image updateorchestrator (e.g. image update orchestrator 710) having at least oneprocessor, a communication interface, and memory, may receive, via thecommunication interface and from a client device, a request to upgrade avirtual machine image. At step 904, the image update orchestrator mayreceive a plurality of software upgrades to be applied to the virtualmachine image and configuration information associated with the virtualmachine image. At step 906, the image update orchestrator may spin up aninstance of a virtual machine. At step 908, the image updateorchestrator may provision, based on the configuration information, theinstance of virtual machine with the virtual machine image. At step 910,the image update orchestrator may cause to install the plurality ofsoftware updates to the instance of virtual machine. At step 912, theimage update orchestrator may take a snapshot of the instance of virtualmachine based on the virtual machine image with the list of installedsoftware updates. At step 914, the image update orchestrator maygenerate a sealed master image based on the snapshot. At step 916, theimage update orchestrator may cause to deploy, to one or more policymanaged devices, the sealed master image. Accordingly, deploying thesealed master image to the one or more policy managed devices enablesthe one or more policy managed devices to implement image upgrades usingthe orchestrated update service.

One or more aspects of the disclosure may be embodied in computer-usabledata or computer-executable instructions, such as in one or more programmodules, executed by one or more computers or other devices to performthe operations described herein. Generally, program modules includeroutines, programs, objects, components, data structures, and the likethat perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract datatypes when executed by one or more processors in a computer or otherdata processing device. The computer-executable instructions may bestored as computer-readable instructions on a computer-readable mediumsuch as a hard disk, optical disk, removable storage media, solid-statememory, RAM, and the like. The functionality of the program modules maybe combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments. Inaddition, the functionality may be embodied in whole or in part infirmware or hardware equivalents, such as integrated circuits,application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmablegate arrays (FPGA), and the like. Particular data structures may be usedto more effectively implement one or more aspects of the disclosure, andsuch data structures are contemplated to be within the scope of computerexecutable instructions and computer-usable data described herein.

Various aspects described herein may be embodied as a method, anapparatus, or as one or more computer-readable media storingcomputer-executable instructions. Accordingly, those aspects may takethe form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely softwareembodiment, an entirely firmware embodiment, or an embodiment combiningsoftware, hardware, and firmware aspects in any combination. Inaddition, various signals representing data or events as describedherein may be transferred between a source and a destination in the formof light or electromagnetic waves traveling through signal-conductingmedia such as metal wires, optical fibers, or wireless transmissionmedia (e.g., air or space). In general, the one or morecomputer-readable media may be and/or include one or more non-transitorycomputer-readable media.

As described herein, the various methods and acts may be operativeacross one or more computing servers and one or more networks. Thefunctionality may be distributed in any manner, or may be located in asingle computing device (e.g., a server, a client computer, and thelike). For example, in alternative embodiments, one or more of thecomputing platforms discussed above may be implemented in one or morevirtual machines that are provided by one or more physical computingdevices. In such arrangements, the various functions of each computingplatform may be performed by the one or more virtual machines, and anyand/or all of the above-discussed communications between computingplatforms may correspond to data being accessed, moved, modified,updated, and/or otherwise used by the one or more virtual machines.

Aspects of the disclosure have been described in terms of illustrativeembodiments thereof. Numerous other embodiments, modifications, andvariations within the scope and spirit of the appended claims will occurto persons of ordinary skill in the art from a review of thisdisclosure. For example, one or more of the steps depicted in theillustrative figures may be performed in other than the recited order,and one or more depicted steps may be optional in accordance withaspects of the disclosure.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the subject matter defined in the appended claims is notnecessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above.Rather, the specific features and acts described above are described asexample implementations of the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: recording, by a computing device, an instance of a virtual machine to generate a snapshot of the instance of the virtual machine; joining, by the computing device, a plurality of virtual machine images together to generate an image based on the recorded instance of the virtual machine; and providing, by the computing device, the image to a resource of a computing environment to trigger image upgrades on the resource.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of virtual machine images is associated with a domain.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the domain comprises an Active Directory domain.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: prior to recording the instance of the virtual machine: provisioning, by the computing device, the instance of the virtual machine with a previous version of the image based on configuration information associated with the previous version of the image; and applying, by the computing device, a plurality of software updates to the instance of the virtual machine.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the configuration information indicates a frequency at which the image is to be updated.
 6. The method of claim 4, wherein the configuration information indicates at least one methodology that the image is to be updated.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: providing, by the computing device, the image to a plurality of resources to trigger the image upgrades on the plurality of resources; and receiving, from the plurality of resources, validation information indicating functionalities of applications on the plurality of resources.
 8. The method of claim 7, further comprising: after receiving positive validation information, marking the image as stable; and after receiving negative validation information, marking the image as unstable.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the image to the resource comprises: comparing the image with a previous version of the image recorded in a common image database; and determining a plurality of components in the image that have changed, so that provision of the image to the resource includes at least one of the plurality of components.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein providing the image to the resource comprises: reconfiguring a virtual machine image on the resource based on the at least one of the plurality of components, so that provision of the image to the resource includes installing the at least one of the plurality of components incrementally on the resource.
 11. A computing platform, comprising: at least one processor; a communication interface communicatively coupled to the at least one processor; and memory storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing platform to: record an instance of a virtual machine to generate a snapshot of the instance of the virtual machine; join a plurality of virtual machine images together to generate an image based on the recorded instance of the virtual machine; and provide the image to a resource in a computing environment to trigger image upgrades on the resource.
 12. The computing platform of claim 11, wherein each of the plurality of virtual machine images is associated with a domain.
 13. The computing platform of claim 12, wherein the domain comprises an Active Directory domain.
 14. The computing platform of claim 11, wherein the memory stores additional computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing platform to: prior to recording the instance of the virtual machine: provision the instance of the virtual machine with a previous version of the image based on configuration information associated with the previous version of the image; and apply a plurality of software updates to the instance of the virtual machine.
 15. The computing platform of claim 14, wherein the configuration information indicates a frequency at which the image is to be updated.
 16. The computing platform of claim 14, wherein the configuration information indicates at least one methodology that the image is to be updated.
 17. The computing platform of claim 11, wherein the memory stores additional computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing platform to: provide the image to a plurality of resources in the computing environment to implement the image upgrades on the plurality of resources; and receive validation information indicating functionalities of applications on the plurality of resources.
 18. The computing platform of claim 17, wherein the memory stores additional computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing platform to: after receiving positive validation information, mark the image as stable; and after receiving negative validation information, mark the image as unstable.
 19. The computing platform of claim 11, wherein the memory stores additional computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing platform to: compare the image with a previous version of the image recorded in a common image database; and determine a plurality of components in the image that have changed, so that provision of the image to the resource includes installing the at least one of the plurality of components incrementally on the resource.
 20. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by a computing platform comprising at least one processor, memory, and a communication interface, cause the computing platform to: record an instance of a virtual machine to generate a snapshot of the instance of the virtual machine; join a plurality of virtual machine images together to generate an image based on the recorded instance of the virtual machine; and provide the image to a resource in a computing environment to trigger image upgrades on the resource. 